Remembering Herb Emory

Anyone who travels the Atlanta roadways appreciates a set of eyes in the sky. For three years, I traveled to Atlanta almost daily. A friend of mine drove from Armuchee in northwest Georgia to Atlanta almost daily. I thought my drive was long and taxing, but the drive for my friend was two and a half times longer than my drive.

Occasionally, I would insist that he come home and spend the night at my parsonage, especially, after we had been in evening classes. I feared that he would fall asleep at the wheel after such a long day.

While we shared a friendship, we also shared a dependence on Captain Herb Emory and his traffic reports about Atlanta traffic. After three years of traveling to Atlanta, my friend, his wife, and son moved back to their home state of Mississippi. He didn’t need to keep up with Captain Herb’s reports after this.

I remained in my home state of Georgia. Any time that I headed towards Atlanta, I’d check the radio to see what traffic was like from Captain Herb.

By the time you read this, a lot of people will have mourned and grieved the loss of Captain Herb. A lot of people depended on this man to get to work and to get home safely, day after day.

After Captain Herb’s death, cartoonist Mike Luckovitch submitted a cartoon with Captain Herb sitting on the edge of a cloud looking down over Atlanta traffic from heaven. I am not sure what can be seen from heaven down to earth, but I could easily picture Captain Herb doing exactly what Mike portrayed him as doing. Likewise, I can also visualize my dad tending to a garden and animals, while also looking down from heaven and keeping a watchful eye over his children.

To know that there is a heaven and a life after this earthly life are blessings beyond our finite imaginations. I look forward to the day when my time here ends and I am greeted into heaven by Jesus, family members, friends, and the one who always reminded us of his big aching toe over Atlanta traffic, Captain Herb.

For I rest assured that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5.8